


The Aleksandr Marchant Problem

by AgentSprings



Category: The Creatures | Cow Chop RPF
Genre: Blood, FakeChop, M/M, Torture, guns and knives, soulmates can feel each others pain, there are some needles near the end too
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-01
Updated: 2018-03-01
Packaged: 2019-03-25 15:45:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13837944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgentSprings/pseuds/AgentSprings
Summary: In a world where soulmates can feel each others pain, Aleks' past catches up to him.





	The Aleksandr Marchant Problem

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AgentSprings](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgentSprings/gifts).



> Was inspired by a 'soulmates au' list on Tumblr, no one asked for this but I just wanted to write something for it!  
> Gifting it to AgentSprings though, cause without your encouragement I would've taken another three months to finish this <3

~~~~~

“Comm check.”

“James, it's been three minutes and we haven't moved. Chill out.”

“What if I just want to hear your beautiful voice, Aleks?”

“What if I just shriek as loud as I possibly can into this mic right now?”

“Please don’t, we’re trying not to draw attention here.” Brett chimed in. “And there are other people listening in on your conversation so please shut the fuck up.”

“Miss you too, Brett.” James laughed as he muted his mic, leaning back in his office chair. He could hear Brett making remarks about not missing James and being home in an hour through his headset as he spun his chair around, grinning at Lindsey. “We got this in the bag, there's nothing going on out there.”

“Don't jinx us,” Lindsey said with a scowl. “How we looking, Asher?”

“All good here. A little bit of chatter on the scanner, but nothing pointing in their direction. I got a suburban parked outside a hanger three doors down, don't think it's cause for concern though.” Asher said.

James snapped his fingers as he spun the chair around with a kick of his feet, clicking his mic on as he pulled himself up to the desk again. “Security guard passing in thirty-five seconds, get ready to move your asses.”

“Check.” Brett answered.

Asher broke in, his voice carrying through the room and James’ headset at the same time. “Guard’s early, repeat, guard is early, he will be passing through in ten seconds.”

Brett sighed into the mic, “Unexpected but we can work with that. Keep an eye on him and let us know if our window is looking smaller.”

“Will do. Path is clear, move when ready.” 

James glanced over at Asher and his wall of security monitors. “Did you see any reason why he came back around faster this time?”

Asher shook his head, “No, he just seems to be walking a little faster than usual. It’s last round for this shift, maybe he’s excited to go home.”

Lindsey walked up behind Asher, crossing her arms as the three of them watched Brett and Aleks on the monitors, adeptly slinking out of the shadows on the catwalk inside the hangar and down the stairs to where their target, a cargobob, rested in the middle of the hangar. Aleks had nearly reached the bottom of the steps and Brett halfway across the pavement to the cargobob when they both suddenly whirled towards the door, their guns snapping up to aim at something the cameras couldn't see just before the monitor went black.

“What the hell happened? Asher, what the hell happened?” James instantly shot to his feet, covering the distance between desks in a couple of steps. Ashers fingers flew across the keyboard, shaking his head. Lindsey was already calling for Brett or Aleks through the headset. When there was no answer, she turned on James.

“Anything? Do you feel anything, is Aleks ok?” She asked, her brow furrowed at him. 

James had to think about it, making himself aware of how he felt. His and Aleks connection to each other had always been strong, he'd been dealing with the sensation of bumps and scrapes ever since the age of four because of the younger man and his reckless tendencies, but he didn't feel anything unusual right then. He shook his head at Lindsey, “No, everything feels fine.”

She gave a firm nod, her lips tight, before touching her headset, calling for Trevor and Jakob, the two of them still sitting in the parkade of the airport, to be on alert and ready for extraction at any moment.

And then James felt it. At first there grew a creeping sense of dread unlike anything he'd felt before, the emotional sensation so strong he felt like the breath had been knocked out of him. Lindsey snapped her head up sharply as he gasped, concern evident. 

“James? What's going on, what do you feel?” 

Before he could even think of a way to articulate the feeling, the left side of his chest burst into pain, the unmistakable sting of a bullet tore through his muscles and rattled his ribs to the core. His legs gave out and he collapsed to his knees, catching himself on the armrest of Ashers chair. He felt Asher latch onto him, holding him up as he felt the back of his head strike pavement that wasn't actually there. His vision exploded into whiteness as hands on his back guided him to the floor, Lindsey's voice distantly calling for Brett before everything went black.

~~~~~

“Stop, get off me, it's fine.”

“No, Brett, it's not fine, just give me five minutes to stitch it up.”

“Lindsey, I swear to god if you don't let me out of here-”

“Just shut the fuck up and sit still, you're not saving any time by arguing with me.”

James’ body was numb as he was roused by Lindsey and Brett bickering nearby, feeling disjointed from his body. For a moment he couldn't remember what happened, why did Brett need stitches, why did he feel so groggy. 

“Ow! What the hell Lindsey!”

“Then stop moving!”

Brett grumbled something that James couldn't hear and a loud slap was the only other response, presumably Lindsey delivering it and Brett receiving. It was quiet after that for a couple minutes asides from the occasional hiss of pain from Brett before he finally broke the silence. 

“Is James alright?”

There was no response for a moment and James thought about giving some indication that he was awake, but didn't think he would've been able to even if he tried. His memories slowly trickled back in, watching Brett and Aleks through the camera before it cut out, the searing pain in his chest and head and then nothing. _God, what happened to Aleks, where is he?_

“I don't know. The way he screamed before passing out was awful, the pain must've been intense. I gave him a painkiller but it should be wearing off soon. He’ll be groggy for a bit when he wakes up.”

 _What about Aleks? Stop talking about me, what the hell happened to Aleks_ , James wanted to scream. He finally pried his eyes open, blinking at the brightness of the light on the ceiling. He was lying in one of the three cots tucked in the corner of the warehouse that they had partitioned off and set up as an infirmary, Brett perched upon a stool at the foot of the bed with Lindsey stitching up a wound on the top of his right shoulder as he held an ice pack to the bruise forming around his left eye.

Brett nearly kicked the stool over when he saw James’ eyes open, rushing to park himself on the edge of the cot despite Lindsey's protests.

“Hey man, you back with us?” he asked, his voice low.

James tried clearing his throat, his mouth feeling like it was full of cotton balls. He grimaced at how scratchy his voice sounded as he muttered, “yeah.”

Lindsey passed Brett a cup of water with a straw and spoke while Brett helped James into a seated position to drink. “You're ok James, you don't have any injuries yourself, but I don't know how you're going to feel when the painkillers wear off completely. Don't let yourself be in pain, tell me when you need more, at least until we get Aleks back and get him figured out.”

James coughed as he choked on the water. “Get him back? Where is he?” 

He didn't like the look Brett and Lindsey exchanged. “What was that look? What the hell happened, Brett?”

Brett rubbed his hand over his face and sighed. “Some hotshot crew. Foreign sounding mother fuckers, but seemed like Aleks recognized them and they knew him. They were ready for us and a couple of them got the jump on me before I could see what happened to Aleks. They were all gone, Aleks included, when I woke up. I’m sorry, James.”

James pushed away the hand Brett placed on his shoulder, pushing himself up and trying to throw his legs off the side of the cot.

“Hey, no, stay put,” Lindsey protested, but James waved her away as well. 

“James-”

“I’m fine,” James insisted, ignoring how unsteady he was on his feet. His head was still swimming, but he stubbornly put one foot in front of the other, making his way out into the main area. He made a beeline for Asher’s desk, clutching to the back of the hackers chair to keep himself steady.”Where is he?”

Asher glanced back as his chair shifted under James’ weight, eyes wide in surprise to see him on his feet. “Uh- I was able to track one of their vehicles. Trevor and Jakob are waiting for Brett to get patched up to figure out a plan.”

“Asher-” Brett warned, coming up behind James. 

“He kinda asked?”

“But he’s not coming, so he didn’t need to know that.”

“Like hell I’m staying here,” James said as he whirled around to face Brett, his head spun and he kept a firm grip on Asher’s chair. Brett raised his eyebrow at him, unimpressed with how unsteady he was.

“Yeah, you are staying here, you can barely stand right now.”

“No, I’m going, it’s just the painkillers messing with me, I’ll be fine soon.”

Brett clapped a hand on each of James’ shoulders, squaring him up to make eye contact. “James, we can take care of this, we’ll get him back, you just need to stay here.”

“How many? How many guys did they have? If it’s a whole crew and we’re already down one of our best guys without Aleks, then you’re going to need every gun you can get. And come on… It’s Aleks. Please Brett.” 

Brett glared at James, his eyes intense as he stared at James, who tried to return the look with the same intensity, though the wavering he tried to suppress probably didn’t help. That waver seemed to make up Brett's mind.

“No. And that's final.” Brett released James’ shoulders and waved a finger at Lindsey. “Make sure he stays put. Asher, let's go, gonna need your help.”

“Brett, what the fuck-” James started, taking an unsteady step towards him.

“No, James! You're hopped up on painkillers right now and can barely walk, we don't know what kind of shape Aleks is in so even if we wait til you're sober you may be worse off still. You can't help us like this.” 

“Come on, man!” James yelled after him, but Brett refused to listen to anything else he had to say. 

Asher gave him an apologetic grimace as he pushed his chair back and followed Brett over to where Trevor and Jakob were checking weapons.

James let Lindsey guide him back to the infirmary area but grumbled the whole way. Lindsey made a non-committal hum as she patted his shoulder and left him alone on the cot. He lay there glaring at the ceiling, listening to Brett barking orders as they loaded the car parked in the warehouse. Over the next twenty minutes he gradually felt like the painkillers were finally wearing off, his head becoming clearer but the left side of his chest ached deep into the muscles and the back of his head felt bruised. Despite the aches, he felt like he could be steady on his feet and was ready to confront Brett about going along. 

He could hear car doors slamming and the garage door opening as he pulled himself up off the cot again, getting to the door of the temporary wall just in time to see the car pulling out and the garage door starting to close. 

_Goddammit,_ he thought to himself, glancing around for Lindsey. He could see her sitting in Brett’s office, her phone pressed to her ear, having an animated conversation with who knows who. He didn’t waste any of the time her distraction gave him, hurrying to the weapons lockers and pulling out his choice weapons before snatching up his keys and sneaking out the front door to his car.

He caught a glimpse of Brett’s car disappearing around a corner down the street and gunned it to catch up, keeping them just within sight until they reached a high riser downtown. They pulled just inside an alley next to the ramp leading down into the underground parking and piled out while James parked down the street, hoping they wouldn’t recognize his car. Jakob and Asher glanced up and down the street a couple times, but neither of them seemed to notice him. Trevor got to work breaking open the door labeled ‘Maintenance’ next to where they parked and in short time the four men were barging through, guns in hand.

James waited a moment, listening for gunshots or alarms. No sound reached him so he quickly followed after, ducking through the door. He found himself in a stairwell, a couple flights of steps leading down to the parking garage and many flights above him. _Fucking stairs. I'm coming, Aleks,_ he thought before beginning his ascent. 

This far in he didn’t care if Brett discovered he was following them or not, so he didn’t try to hide, sprinting up the stairs as fast as his aching chest would allow. Even without a physical wound his muscles were tense under the phantom pain, causing him to have to pause to catch his breath every couple of floors.

During one such stop, the painted sign on the wall announcing floor eight, the door next to him bounced open as two men ambled through, talking in bored tones in another language. They stopped as they saw James leaning heavily on the railing, a gun dangling from his hand. The two muscle bound men each carried a gun of their own.

“Кто этот ублюдок?” One said, before all hell broke loose above them. 

Gunfire echoed down the stairwell, yelling voices unintelligible over the cacophony. James snapped his head up, as though he could see what was going on at the same time the men trained their guns on him, yelling something he couldn’t understand in Russian. There was no way he was going to be able to take on the both of them at once, so he raised his hands, spreading his fingers to show he didn’t have his finger on the trigger.

“Trevor!” Brett’s voice bellowed down the stairs, sounding close. “Fall back! Asher, move!” 

The men looked at each other, speaking quickly in their own language before one of them stepped forward and grabbed James by the front of his collar, dragging him out of the stairwell and into the hallway they had come from.

“Brett!” He managed to yell before the door slammed shut and one of the Russians slammed the butt of his gun into James’ temple.

~~~~~

It was dark when he woke up. No, not fully dark. As his eyes adjusted he could see tiny pinpricks of light in a uniform pattern that shifted as he moved his head. The air felt warm and stale around his face, he recognized that his head was covered by something, a hood of some sort maybe. He was sat in a hard wooden chair, his wrists tied to the armrests and ankles bound together.

His head felt like it was going to split open and his face and body ached, a throbbing pain around his eyes and cheeks. He found himself unable to tell if he had acquired injuries of his own yet or if the pain was coming solely from Aleks still. _Oh god, Aleks. Where is he?_

His thoughts were interrupted as someone pulled the hood off of his head, a wad of his hair getting caught in their hand as well and yanking his head back hard. 

“You motherfucker-” A solid punch to the face interrupted him, whipping his head to the side and making him bite the inside of his cheek. He felt blood pooling behind his lip as his vision tilted for a moment.

“I do not know who you are,” a low voice with a light Russian accent rumbled through the dimly lit room, “but I am curious what you were doing in my building. Mayhaps you were one of the men trying to steal my reclaimed property?”

James squinted in confusion. “Property?”

“Little Aleksandr,” The voice said with a chuckle, “he was a useful commodity for me once upon a time. Or did he not tell you he used to be in service of another group?”

Without anyone touching him a sharp pain, like a knife being dragged through his skin, down the right side of his chest made him scream and recoil, fighting the ropes to get away from the non-existent wound. 

“Hmm, how interesting. Seems we have a pair here.” There was the sound of someone snapping their fingers and then rough hands grabbed on the back of James’ chair, dragging the whole thing backwards on two legs into a pool of light from a bare light bulb dangling from the ceiling. 

Someone stepped in front of him as the chair crashed back to the floor and he looked up. A tall man with a thin face and receding hairline stared down at him, a wicked twist to his lips. He moved to the side and James gasped as he saw Aleks.

He was sitting in a chair without armrests, his hands instead tied together behind his back and ankles tied to the legs of his chair. His face was bruised and swelling, his left eye completely swollen shut and right eye only half lidded and unfocused, blood running down the side of his face where the skin had been broken. His shirt was torn open and showing off the injuries to his chest, the bullet wound on the left and a long vertical line cutting down through his tattoo on the right, fresh blood seeping down his chest. His head lolled back, unfocused eye staring at the ceiling.

“Aleks!” James yanked on the ropes, his body shaking with fury. “What the hell did you fucks do to him?”

“Barely anything, to be quite honest, he took a bit of a tumble when one of my compatriots unfortunately shot him and another with a vendetta may have roughed up his pretty face a bit, but it seems he has a severe concussion. I do not think he can even see right now.” The tall man stepped next to Aleks, waving a hand over his face. James jerked at his restraints again as Aleks showed no response to the shadow passing over his eyes. The tall man lightly slapped his cheek, even the slight impact making both Aleks and James wince as his fingers tapped on harsh bruises. Aleks’ head fell forward, his arms tied behind the back of the chair the only thing preventing him from falling entirely to the floor, a groan with a string of Russian words escaping his lips.

The tall man _tsk_ ed at the words, rolling his eyes and shaking his head in a mocking way at James. “So rude this boy is, he should be grateful I am even allowing him to return to my employment.”

Aleks seemed to gather his strength and lifted his head, glaring in the direction of the tall man and spitting Russian with an intensity in his voice that James rarely heard. Before Aleks even finished speaking, the tall man rolled his eyes and waved towards James, the goon standing next to James not even hesitating to punch him straight across the jaw. James grunted, his head tossed to the side and the blood from his lip pouring freely through his beard to stain the front of his shirt.

“Stop!” Aleks yelled, his eyes screwed shut. He continued talking rapidly in Russian, his tone more desperate sounding now. 

The tall man said something in Russian, inflection posed as a question. The response he received from Aleks was not satisfactory it seemed and he pointed to James. 

This time the goon pulled out a knife and in one fluid downward motion sliced into the topside of James’ forearm. He screamed in pain, his hand instinctively clenching, which only stretched the newly damaged muscles, exacerbating it even worse. He could hear Aleks yelling in a mixture of English and Russian, begging them to leave James alone. 

The tall man repeated his question to Aleks in Russian, his voice low and menacing sounding. Aleks hesitated, but responded with a word James recognized to mean _no_. The tall man pointed to James and the goon sliced into the back of James’ forearm again.

James cried out and briefly shut his eyes, focusing on breathing through the pain. He could feel cold metal against his arm and his eyes flew open, widening as he realized the goon was resting his blade against James’ arm, ready for a third cut.

“No! Fine, fine, я пойду, я пойду,” Aleks said, his shoulders dropping as he crumpled in his seat. “Я пойду, оставлю его.”

The tall man’s face twisted into a smile as he pulled out a gun, “здесь он останется.”

Hearing Aleks’ anguished and pain filled scream hurt worse than the bullet tearing through James’ abdomen. He lifted his head to look at Aleks’, his bleach blond hair tracked with blood, face mottled with bruises and swelling. His one eye still able to open was clenched shut as he screamed, though even that was losing strength, the pain carrying through their bond strong enough to send him over the edge and into oblivion. His scream petered out, his face relaxed, and his body went lax against his bonds. James was grateful for that at least, he wouldn’t suffer while unconscious. 

His own body felt in shock, barely feeling the pain emanating from his core. He looked down at the red blossoming across his shirt, the thought of it ruining his shirt briefly crossing his mind. He managed to lift his head and glare at the tall man, who had already holstered his gun and was tapping away on a cell phone.

“What did he agree to?” James asked.

“Hmm?” The tall man looked at him disinterested.

“He agreed to something, what did he agree to.”

The tall man tilted his head at James, looking at the wound in his belly. “He’s coming home to work for me again. At the rate you are going, it looks like he won’t have to worry about a soulmate sharing his pain anymore.”

James clenched his jaw and shook his head. “Fuck that, he isn’t going anywhere with you.”

The tall man smiled at him again, “I’d like to see you do anything about it.”

He snapped his fingers and headed for the door, two of the henchmen standing nearby cutting Aleks’ bonds and dragging him out of his chair to follow. James felt his stomach twist at how limp Aleks was, not responding even the slightest to being manhandled out of the room. 

He clenched his eyes shut to stop the tears pooling as the door clicked shut and he was left alone with blood pooling under his chair.

~~~~~

It was about twenty minutes later when someone kicked in the door and three figures charged into the room, guns drawn and checking every corner of them room for anyone asides from James slumped in his chair.

“Shit, James,” Brett dropped to his knees next to the chair, setting his gun down within easy reach.

“Brett?” James blinked his eyes open.

“Yeah, man, we’re here, we’re going to get you out of here.” Brett sliced through the ropes securing James, who flinched back from the blade being so close to his arm. The bleeding from the cuts had already slowed to a stop, which surprised him, but his stomach was still seeping, which didn’t surprise him.

He pressed a hand to his stomach and braced his arm on Brett’s shoulder to stand up. “They took Aleks, they’re going to take him out of the country.”

“Who are these fucks?”

“Never got any names, but the leader said Aleks used to work for him and he was ‘reclaiming his property’.”

Brett made a face at the thought of Aleks being anyone's property and snatched his gun up. “Sounds like a dick, let’s go kill the son of a bitch.”

The two of them turned to the door and James finally saw the other two men that had come charging in with Brett. Trevor, who was to be expected, and…

“Brett, what’s DeAngelis doing here?”

The other James waved at him, “Nice to see you too, Nova.”

“With both you and Aleks being the ones in need of rescue, I had to bring in some help.” Brett said. “Kinda sad when I have to call in a whole ‘nother crew to make up for two of my own.”

James squinted at him. “I’m going to take that as a compliment,” he turned to DeAngelis, “but I don’t think that was a compliment for you.”

“Hey, as long as I’m getting some sort of payment out of this, I don’t care.”

Brett held his hand to his ear for a moment, listening to someone over the radio. “Asher says nobody has left the building yet, he was able to get control of the cameras for a moment and found Aleks, they’re heading for the service elevator at the back of the building.”

James clenched his jaw. “Someone give me a goddamn gun.”

~~~~~

By the time they got to the service elevator, the group of Russians were already half way into the elevator car with Aleks strapped to a gurney. There were five of them plus the tall man, but after regrouping with Cib, Steven, and Jakob, the seven of them took them out with ease. James managed to call dibs on the tall man and Cib brought him to his knees still alive.

James stalked across the room with a hand pressed to his stomach still, grinding the gun between the tall mans eyes. “Like I said, he isn’t going anywhere with you.” And pulled the trigger.

The gun clattered to the floor next to the body and James hurried to the gurney without a glance back, his stomach twisting at the sight of Aleks. Somewhere between leaving James and getting here someone had put in an IV needle into the side of his neck, the clear tubing leading to a bag hanging from a short stand at the head of the gurney. James’ hands trembled as he reached for the needle, but Trevor smacked his hands away.

“You’re too shaky, let me do it.” He offered. 

James nodded, not trusting his voice to remain steady enough to say anything. He gently laid a hand on the side of Aleks face, brushing the blond hair back from his forehead. Under Trevors comparably steadier hand, the mean looking needle slipped out easily.

“What was it?” Brett asked quietly, peeking over Trevor’s shoulder. 

Trevor grabbed the bag and turned it so he could read the label. “Looks like a sedative, knocking him out for the trip, I’d guess.”

 _Come on, Aleks,_ James silently encouraged, _you’re ok now, we got you._

Aleks remained unaware as James was jostled to the side and the gurney pushed fully into the elevator as Brett ordered everybody to move, members of both crews piling in as Trevor hit the button for the parking garage. James was forced into the corner where he was barely able to brace himself on the corner of the gurney, the pain in his stomach starting to become too much. He leaned forward, his forehead resting on the plastic cloth next to Aleks’ head. He rested his hand against the side of Aleks’ throat, grounding himself with the reassuring thump of his pulse.

“James,” he heard Brett call from the other side of the crowded elevator, “You good man? You still with us?”

“Still here,” he managed to get out, “would like to go home now, please.”

“Alright, buddy, we’re working on it. Trevor, stick with him, everybody get ready to get to the vans as soon as these doors open.”

The next thirty seconds were a commotion of activity that James could barely keep up with, Trevor ducked down under James’ arm, half carrying him as the Fake Pine crew took out the remaining guards in the garage, two vans tearing down the ramp and coming to a screeching halt in front of them. Trevor shoved him into the side door of the nearest one, sitting him against the back of the driver seat in the empty back end. Tears pooled in his eyes with relief as he watched Brett climbing in through the back doors of the same van, Aleks cradled in his arms. Cib jumped in behind Brett and slammed the doors as Trevor shut the front and hollered for Sammi Jo to get them the hell out of there.

James could feel the edges of his vision going grey as he slowly maneuvered himself around to lay on the floor, trying to get closer to Aleks as Cib and Brett pressed any bandages they could find to his wounds. He could hear Trevor insisting he stay still, but the only thing that mattered to him was being next to Aleks, he _needed_ to be next to Aleks.

He didn’t get as close as he wanted, but he finally managed to get his fingers tangled in Aleks’ hand before Trevor pressed a wadded up t-shirt to his stomach, the pain tearing through his core and everything went black.

~~~~~

Quiet guitar and a crooning voice from a speaker on the counter woke James. The familiar haze of painkillers flooded his head again, his brain feeling like it was slowly spinning inside his skull. He lay there for a moment, focusing on the gentle music and trying to take stock of himself through the fog. He didn’t feel any pain at the moment, he hoped that was due to the drugs rather than… something he didn’t want to think about.

 _Did we get him? We got him, but did we get him in time?_ As the thought crossed his mind he felt the breath of a sigh ghost across his neck and something twitch against his hand, becoming aware of a weight on his shoulder and fingers twined with his own. 

He pried his eyes open and looked down, discovering a head of white blond hair resting on his shoulder, Aleks’ cot having been pulled up right next to James’ so he could curl up next to his soulmate. Aleks seemed to be sleeping peacefully, his breathing slow and steady. James managed to plant a kiss on top of Aleks’ head before flopping back into the pillow, closing his eyes again as the room started to spin.

“He insisted I move his bed closer, he didn’t want you to be alone when you woke up.” 

James cracked his eye open, looking over Aleks’ head to where Brett’s voice came from. He was lounging on his back on the third cot in the room, his head propped against the wall and booted foot on the edge of the bed with a book draped across his chest. 

James swallowed hard, his throat catching at the thought of Aleks being concerned for _him_. “After what he went through, he’s the one that shouldn’t have been alone.”

Brett pushed himself up and put his feet back on the floor. “He wasn’t entirely alone, I’ve been here the whole time. I’m sure he would’ve preferred to see you first thing when he woke up instead of my dumb mug though.”

James couldn’t suppress the laughter that bubbled up from his chest, the drugs amplifying his reaction. The noise and movement shook Aleks from his sleep, his head popping up excitedly to look at James, his face breaking into a smile. His left eye was still swollen shut, his face an array of bruises, but his right eye damn near twinkled with happiness, his concussion reducing enough already for his eyesight to return.

“Hey handsome,” Aleks giggled at him. James’ eyes wandered down his body, noting the swath of white bandages criss crossed down his chest and the IV line in his arm. 

James wasn’t even certain what was funny, but he laughed again as he pointed at the IV, only then noticing the needle in his own arm. “Are we both on the gooood stuff today?”

Aleks’ eye crinkled shut as he laughed along with James. “It sure feels like it, man.”

James giggled again.

“Dude, you’re so fucking high.” Aleks teased.

“So are you, you dork,” James poked at Aleks’ chest, avoiding touching the bandages and any visible bruises. Both of them broke into giggles and Aleks dropped his head back onto James shoulder.

“This is definitely the good stuff,” Aleks snorted, “I’m pretty sure I should be in a lot more pain right now. Which means you should be in a lot more pain right now. Hey, does it hurt when I do this?”

“Nope!” Brett snapped, towering over them in an instant and smacking Aleks’ hand away from where he was about to poke the bruise across James’ cheek. “Just cause you can’t really feel it right now doesn’t mean you can go around aggravating your wounds, you numbskulls.”

“My skull is some sort of numb right now, alright,” James muttered as he yawned.

Aleks’ hand was slowly creeping towards James’ face again, the bruise seeming to call to his drug addled brain. Instead of smacking his hand away, Brett grabbed onto the rail on the side of Aleks’ cot, dragging him away from James.

“Hey, no!” Aleks hollered, wildly flailing for James’ arm, who reached out and caught his hand just before he was pulled out of reach. They held onto each other tightly, desperate to stay near each other. Aleks smacked at Brett’s arms with his free hand, whining, “Breeettt!”

“That’s as close as you get until you stop poking each other. Trust me, you’ll thank me when the drugs wear off.” Brett huffed, settling back on the extra cot with his book.

James and Aleks looked at each other with grins on their faces, both shuffling as close to the edge of their cots as they dared and squeezing each others hand tightly. 

“Thanks for coming for me,” Aleks said with a yawn, blinking slowly as he tried to fight the sleep the drugs were trying to pull him into.

James could feel his eyes watering as he watched Aleks drift off, giving a final squeez of his hand.

“I love you, man,” he muttered as he too was consumed by sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> In order the Russian lines are:  
> "Who's this bastard?"  
> "I will go, I will go"  
> "I will go, leave him."  
> "Here he will remain."  
> (I used google translate since they were simple sentences, so hopefully it's accurate!)
> 
> Kudos and comments are appreciated <3


End file.
